First chemo round
hey! first round is over. It's been a crazy past couple of weeks. Thank goodness Dave's mom is here and has been doing so much. Here's some things that have happened
+ I finished fertility treatments! Monday was my egg retrieval day. My body responded well to the drugs (from 4 follicles to 10) over a period of 10 days. I had to go in a ton for blood work and ultrasounds.
+ My medication was free through the Livestrong foundation! That was awesome. $1500 injection pens for free. You have to make less than $150,000 and have breast cancer
+ The rest was not free but discounted for Dave being a Montefiore employee and me having breast cancer
+ The procedure was really mellow. I hated when they put the IV in my hand (my veins are getting thrashed) but other than that, it was great. I woke up and they said, you're done! They got 8 eggs.
+ We debated about doing ICSI (where they inject your egg with the sperm) but decided against it because it would have been an extra $1500. The next day she called to say only 2 became embryos. I was in traffic when she called and it was really more shocking and sad than I thought it would be. Oh well, 2 could be 2! Or 2 could be 1 or 2 could be 0. Either way, we won't be crossing that bridge for like 5 years.
+ So I finished that treatment and the next day they filled up my tissue expanders another 30 mL. The last two times they did 60 and it was so uncomfortable and painful that I decided to have them do half this time. (I didn't want to be all in pain when I started chemo) It was such a good choice because I've hardly felt any pain. I'll go in and fill them up one more time for a total of 305 ml on each side. They do that right before your next round of chemo when your white blood cells are looking good.
+ The next day it was on to doing a PET scan. They inject you with a radioactive fluid and then you sit for an hour while the fluid travels all over your body. Then you get to do the scan IN YOUR NORMAL CLOTHES as long as you take all the metal off. Total win. Although I will say I was in tears for some of it. It was my second time fasting before a procedure and I just felt weak and exhausted. A couple of hours later, my oncologist said it was negative! very happy about that.
+ But couldn't be around kids for 24 hours and I still had to get my Lupron shot (protects your ovaries from chemo) so I went and did a lot of shopping at the Salvation Army and the mall and stuff. Then I booked us a hotel in Yonkers for the night. I picked up Dave and we ate in the city and swam at the hotel and had a delicious sleep and free breakfast. (it was the new Hyatt in Yonkers, if you're interested. I recommend it)
+ Today, we did chemo! It's weird but I was kind of excited. Not excited, just ready to start it.
+ They did blood work and gave me a bunch of benadryl which made my legs feel crazy and the steroids make me want to run 100 miles outside. Then it was 1.5 hrs of Docetaxol and 2 hours of Carboplatin. The only really bad moment i had was when they started the Docetaxol, I got up to go to the bathroom and I felt so unbelievably nauseous and like my head was on fire. It was so so weird. But luckily it went away after 20 seconds and never came back. The rest of the afternoon I was sleepy and finally slept for awhile.
+ They sent us home with an IV bag of fluid for tomorrow and a shot for Dave to do.
+ Overall, I feel ok. I will say that coming home to an apt of screaming children was really exhausting but also good. Distractions are good.
+ We think I'll feel bad by Saturday/Sunday. We think I'll lose my hair in 10 days. Those are all the things we know. They sent me home with a lot of just in case pills. Just in case I get thrush, just in case I feel nauseous, etc. Should be some fun times this week :)
+ I finished fertility treatments! Monday was my egg retrieval day. My body responded well to the drugs (from 4 follicles to 10) over a period of 10 days. I had to go in a ton for blood work and ultrasounds.
+ My medication was free through the Livestrong foundation! That was awesome. $1500 injection pens for free. You have to make less than $150,000 and have breast cancer
+ The rest was not free but discounted for Dave being a Montefiore employee and me having breast cancer
+ The procedure was really mellow. I hated when they put the IV in my hand (my veins are getting thrashed) but other than that, it was great. I woke up and they said, you're done! They got 8 eggs.
+ We debated about doing ICSI (where they inject your egg with the sperm) but decided against it because it would have been an extra $1500. The next day she called to say only 2 became embryos. I was in traffic when she called and it was really more shocking and sad than I thought it would be. Oh well, 2 could be 2! Or 2 could be 1 or 2 could be 0. Either way, we won't be crossing that bridge for like 5 years.
+ So I finished that treatment and the next day they filled up my tissue expanders another 30 mL. The last two times they did 60 and it was so uncomfortable and painful that I decided to have them do half this time. (I didn't want to be all in pain when I started chemo) It was such a good choice because I've hardly felt any pain. I'll go in and fill them up one more time for a total of 305 ml on each side. They do that right before your next round of chemo when your white blood cells are looking good.
+ The next day it was on to doing a PET scan. They inject you with a radioactive fluid and then you sit for an hour while the fluid travels all over your body. Then you get to do the scan IN YOUR NORMAL CLOTHES as long as you take all the metal off. Total win. Although I will say I was in tears for some of it. It was my second time fasting before a procedure and I just felt weak and exhausted. A couple of hours later, my oncologist said it was negative! very happy about that.
+ But couldn't be around kids for 24 hours and I still had to get my Lupron shot (protects your ovaries from chemo) so I went and did a lot of shopping at the Salvation Army and the mall and stuff. Then I booked us a hotel in Yonkers for the night. I picked up Dave and we ate in the city and swam at the hotel and had a delicious sleep and free breakfast. (it was the new Hyatt in Yonkers, if you're interested. I recommend it)
+ Today, we did chemo! It's weird but I was kind of excited. Not excited, just ready to start it.
+ They did blood work and gave me a bunch of benadryl which made my legs feel crazy and the steroids make me want to run 100 miles outside. Then it was 1.5 hrs of Docetaxol and 2 hours of Carboplatin. The only really bad moment i had was when they started the Docetaxol, I got up to go to the bathroom and I felt so unbelievably nauseous and like my head was on fire. It was so so weird. But luckily it went away after 20 seconds and never came back. The rest of the afternoon I was sleepy and finally slept for awhile.
+ They sent us home with an IV bag of fluid for tomorrow and a shot for Dave to do.
+ Overall, I feel ok. I will say that coming home to an apt of screaming children was really exhausting but also good. Distractions are good.
+ We think I'll feel bad by Saturday/Sunday. We think I'll lose my hair in 10 days. Those are all the things we know. They sent me home with a lot of just in case pills. Just in case I get thrush, just in case I feel nauseous, etc. Should be some fun times this week :)
I've had my thoughts on you these past few days as I knew you were starting the chemo. I'm happy to hear your PET scan was negative, and wish you the best over this next week. Love you!!!
ReplyDeletei can't believe i haven't been checking this all along and feel really sad that i didn't do it earlier. thanks for sharing the deets for us people far away! you are amazing and we just love you lots. hope to see you never again, cancer. you can do this, gracia!
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